This mark has been revitalized, of course, by IT, so that now it is one of the most essential keys on the keyboard. Despite its rather utilitarian functions in commerce and communications, it is visually rather elegant: @ @ @ @. I was surprised to learn that in Slovene, this mark is named "afna", which is a borrowing from German (Affe) and means originally "monkey". I guess the Slovenes think @ looks like a monkey.